An Excel Valve Clearance Spreadsheet

In preparation of the recent Bustanut Tech Weekend in Owosso I put together a prototype Excel spreadsheet to help calculate the required shim and to act as a log for future reference.

I have shown this to RaYzerman19 and we used the prototype and found it useful.

When I got back I had posted about the spreadsheet and Fred W stepped up to the plate to massage it to make it more user friendly and griffisi also made some suggestions about a metric version.

Here are some screen shots of the final product...



And the metric version...





The top section is for the exhaust valves. I used the specifications for tolerance as per the Gen II manual for my '06 AE but all FJR's are the same.

If you are out of spec when you remove the shims you should measure them so that you have an accurate reading of the 'As Found' shim. With the 'As Found' Clearance input the spreadsheet calculates the difference from ideal in millimeters. The speadsheet then uses the 'difference' calculation and the 'as found' shim measurement to calculate the ideal shim thickness in millimeters.

Since the new shim will not likely be the exact thickness value when you input the actual thickness of the new shim (in millimeters) the spreadsheet will then calculate the 'expected' or theroetical clearance with the new shim installed. This acts as a check when you perform the final readings.

You can also use this part of the speadsheet to perform 'what if's' by plugging shim numbers in at the 'installed' row and see how much clearance that shim would produce.

The middle section is just a graphical representation of the valve layout and the bottom section is for the intake valves. The intake section is identical to the exhaust section except for the changes in specs.

As per Fred's & Ray's suggestion we used 70% of the maximum clearance to calculate the 'ideal' clearance to allow more tolerance for the valves to 'tighten up' between valve checks.

Fred has graciously offered to host the spreadsheet as part of the FJR NERDS file. Both Fred & I find this highly appropriate.

If you have a way of using an Excel file on your computer and think you would like this here's how to order...

Valve Clearance Spreadsheet

At the bottom of the spreadsheet you will see tabs labelled "Inch Measurement" & "Metric Measurement". Click on the tab for whichever type of feeler gauges you have. I'm old enough to use furlongs per fortnight myself.

Enjoy!

Brilliant!

Glad to see that I'm not the only one using the "old" Excel! I have been a heavy user of Excel for many years and HATE the "new and improved" versions.

Nice little application. I'll use it when I eventually get around to doing my valves. I'm a little timid about diving into it without the watchful eye of a more experienced individual.

Ross

Nice, thanks for the effort! Glad to see you're using .xls for those of us too cheap to upgrade.

--G

Thanks so much, brilliant :clapping: :yahoo:

When we pulled the cams from BikerGeek's Gen I and checked the shims we were somewhat surpised to find shims that only had one number that did not seem to correspond to the shim's actual thickness when we measured it with Ray's digital micrometer. Even if you had the original shims I believe it is good practise to actually measure the shims rather than trusting the numbers on the shim.

I had my digital venier calipers but it did not seem as accurate as Ray's micrometer for this task when we were checking the new shims.

If you are going to purchase a micrometer I would recommend that you get a digital unit that has the ability to display both inch and metric measurements. Mitutoyo is a well respected brand name in measurement equipment but Craftsman makes a perfectly acceptable unit. It would make for a nice Christmas present

'Tis now a thing of beauty, Bill. Very nice.

FYI, I got what I think is a pretty good digital mike at Harbor Fright, about $35. I don't see it on the website any more.

RossKean said:

Glad to see that I'm not the only one using the "old" Excel! I have been a heavy user of Excel for many years and HATE the "new and improved" versions.

Click to expand...

FWIW, when I was re-formatting the sheets for yamafitter I was actually using Office 2010.

It was saved in an "Excel 97-2003" version format for backwards compatibility, but it works just fine on the dreaded "new and improved" version too.

Fred W said:

RossKean said:

Glad to see that I'm not the only one using the "old" Excel! I have been a heavy user of Excel for many years and HATE the "new and improved" versions.

Click to expand...

FWIW, when I was re-formatting the sheets for yamafitter I was actually using Office 2010.

It was saved in an "Excel 97-2003" version format for backwards compatibility, but it works just fine on the dreaded "new and improved" version too.

Click to expand...

I don't like it but I use 2010 out of necessity - any new computers at work come with the latest and greatest from Microsoft. If I am preparing stuff for customers, I also use the "save as" option since many (most) seem to still be using the older versions. Still have 2003 on my home computer and plan to keep it that way as long as possible.

very nice work! Thanks

Ditto on the good work - saved me a copy!

Fred W said:

RossKean said:

Glad to see that I'm not the only one using the "old" Excel! I have been a heavy user of Excel for many years and HATE the "new and improved" versions.

Click to expand...

FWIW, when I was re-formatting the sheets for yamafitter I was actually using Office 2010.

It was saved in an "Excel 97-2003" version format for backwards compatibility, but it works just fine on the dreaded "new and improved" version too.

Click to expand...

Fred,

Thanks for thinking like (and doing) this... my Excel 97 appreciates it !

Yamafitter,

Very Nice job putting this together...Thanks!

Definitely nice work. I'm going to tuck a copy away on Google Docs.

Anybody paying for a valve check should insist on that spreadsheet being completed. I've talked to way too many people lately who paid good money for a valve check that yielded no report of the actual measurements found. Bad business!

Based on some feedback I received, I've taken the liberty to make a few "improvements" to Yamafitter's MESS (Most Excellent SpreadSheet) to make it even easier to use, especially if all you have are inch based feeler gauges and an inch based micrometer. If you have previously downloaded the spreadsheet and saved it you may want to get the new one. It still works essentially the same.

If you hadn't previously seen Bill's MESS, and you are even considering doing your own valve adjustment at sometime in the future, grab yourself a copy and tuck it away. It really is quite nice!

Am I to assume the link in the first post has been updated for download?

correctamundo!

For those that have actually replaced shims, what size of shims were originally installed? It appears that the shims are around 1.80mm but I think it would be useful for anyone planning a valve check to have the correct shims on hand.....you can buy them from Jake Wilson for $1.49 each (plus a $7.00 shipping charge).

I only had to do my intakes so unsure what they have going on under the exhaust buckets. All 8 of my intakes were under the .15mm spec by from .01 to .03 mm at 75k miles. They had previously always been on the low end of spec range since the first check at 25k. Exhausts were all in spec.

The shims I took out miked out to be between 1.79 and 1.81, so it appears the factory aims for a 1.80 but has increments of .01 for setting the initial clearances.

If I was using Yamaha shims, only available in .05mm increments, I would have just stuck in 8 of the 1.75 mm shims and called it good. Instead, I sanded the shims to the exact thickness I wanted and got all 8 clearances to .20 mm, the high end of spec range (.15-.22 mm)

Here's the whole story:

Thanks Fred, I would guess that all of the shims you removed were "intended" to be 1.80mm....which is surprising based my experience with a ZX-6 and my C-14 this spring. The C-14 had intake shims that were 2.25-2.33mm and exhaust shims that were 2.28-2.38mm. Definitely not as consistent as the FLR but the difference in sizes allowed me to change all 16 shims with only 6 new shims. I could have skipped the shim change (this time) since there was virtually no movement since the first valve check but 14 of the clearances were either at the minimum (or slightly past) so I decided to set all 16 at the ideal clearance and call it a lifetime valve adjustment.